Thursday, July 10, 2008
Healing spinal injury with dance therapy: ‘Amazing' !
In what is possibly the first of its kind in India, a medical care center has introduced dance therapy as a healing tool for its patients.
"The benefits of dance therapy - both psychologically and physically - are not unknown in India. But it is for the first time that it has been introduced in a health care center under medical supervision. Needless to say the results have been amazing," Deepti Aggarwal, head of the lifestyle management department of the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre (ISIC), told IANS.
Explaining the benefits of dance therapy which was introduced in the center four months ago, Aggarwal said that dance does not just help one strengthen the muscles but also boosts the confidence of patients and lifts their mood.
"In a spinal cord injury case, a person's physical and mental balance is destroyed. To ask such a person to dance might seem insensitive, but what we are promoting - wheelchair dance - not only acts like a physiotherapy session but also boosts the person's confidence level," she said.
According to Aggarwal, there are two kinds of spinal injuries - paraplegia, when the lower limbs of a person are paralyzed, and quadriplegia, when the upper as well as lower limbs are affected.
"Hand movements for a person suffering from quadriplegia can be painful and finger movements are restricted. But they can move their shoulders and their elbows. Therefore in the first step, the patient learns to propel his wheelchair and move their bodies rhythmically.
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Labels: dance therapy, delhi, healing, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, patients, psychologically, spinal injury
Monday, March 10, 2008
With Appu Ghar's closure in India, a fantasy world fades
"They shouldn't close down Appu Ghar!" cried eight-year-old Shalini Mehra, holding a pink cotton candy stick outside the amusement park even as the adorable orange colored Jumbo, the mascot of the 1982 Asian Games, rotated slowly at the entrance.
"I come here so often. My cousins, who live in Jaipur and visit us every summer, also look forward to the rides here and then a dip at Oysters (the water park adjoining Appu Ghar)...now where will we go? Will they build another Appu Ghar here?" she asked her father.
Shalini's concern was echoed by hundreds of other children and grown-ups who were simply heartbroken at the thought that Appu Ghar was running its last few rides before shutting down forever on Feb. 17 evening.
"I can't believe they are closing down Appu Ghar," said Ashwin Kumar, an engineer.
"First it was the Chanakya cinema and now Appu Ghar. These are the places we associate our childhood, our youth with. We have grown up in these places...they are a part of Delhi's charm, its history," 30-year-old Kumar
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Labels: Appu Ghar, delhi, first amusement park in India, IANS, Oysters
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
1,000 new cars a day are polluting Delhi air: study
One thousand new cars are purchased every day in the capital, taking the air pollution to the pre 2000 levels that used to claim over 50,000 lives a year, revealed a new study released November 6. The study, carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment, found that Delhi is on the verge of losing the gains of switching its city buses to compressed natural gas (CNG) five years ago.
"Every day Delhi is registering 994 new cars and all these are private cars. In a city with nearly half a million vehicles, you can expect the pollution level and we found that the cars are the real culprit," CSE director Sunita Narain said.
"Currently nearly 30 percent of our vehicles are diesel-run and by 2010 half of them are going to be run on diesel. I must warn that this cheap oil is giving rise to sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide in the air.
"The city has exhausted all soft options like advocacy and awareness to reverse the trend, and it's time to take harsh steps like not allowing diesel vehicles on the road," Narain told reporters.
"Restricting car numbers and upgrading the public transport system are the only options for the city now," she said.
In 2002, when the CNG program was initiated in the capital, the annual average levels of the respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) in residential areas stood at 143 micrograms per cubic meter.
"It dropped to 115 mg per cubic meter by 2005.
The upward swing in RSPM has now been noticeable since 2006 and the annual average levels have jumped back to 136 mg per cubic meter.
"The monthly average level of RSPM in the winter of 2006-07 was as high as 350 mg per cubic meter. In normal circumstances it should not go beyond 250 mg in winter," the study said.
The levels can even be higher this winter, as is hinted by the early onset of smog. Due to the high concentration of nitrogen oxide and sulphur oxide, many Delhiites will face breathing difficulties, asthma and other problems related to lungs, the study revealed.
Anumita Roy Choudhury, associate director of CSE, said: "High exposure to RSPM is known to lead to increased hospitalization for asthma, lung diseases, chronic bronchitis and heart damage.
Long-term exposure can cause lung cancer."
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Image and article source:NewsIndiaTimes
Article taken from the issue:30 November, 2007
Labels: 1000 cars, air pollution, Centre for Science and Environment, delhi, natural gas, pollution, smog
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